The body of 23-year-old Chen Rong-yu sat in a crowded Taipei gaming center for nine hours before anyone noticed that something was amiss.

To misappropriate a meme, online gaming is serious business. How serious? Apparently serious enough that people will continue clicking away despite the presence of a decaying corpse only feet from their keyboards.

Sky News reports:

The body of Chen Rong-yu, 23, was found slumped in a chair at a cafe in New Taipei city on Tuesday night, according to local reports.

He was rigid on a chair with his hands stretched out towards the keyboard and mouse, police said.

He had been playing League of Legends.

Mr Chen's body had apparently been sitting there for up to nine hours without any of the 30 other people in the cafe noticing.

He was last seen by a waitress talking on the phone around noon on Wednesday.

Though the investigation is ongoing, local authorities believe that Mr. Rong-yu passed away due to a pre-existing heart condition and the low temperatures of his surroundings. These two factors, along with Mr. Rong-yu's lack of movement while playing and fatigue, may have created a blood clot, and subsequent heart attack.

While most would use this opportunity to warn gamers against the dangers of remaining stationary for extended periods of time, I think the real crux of this issue is that dozens of people failed to notice a deceased person in their midst for hours. Yeah, I get that clicking on your dudes is important, but man, where's the spatial awareness people? Would any of these gamers have batted an eye if a fire broke out? Would they have moved aside if a car crashed through the wall?

I'm not going to jump on the "videogames are dangerously addictive" bandwagon, but I'm suddenly a bit worried about our species. There are completely immobile thorn bushes in Kenya that have better survival instincts than LAN gamers. In the event of a puma attack, we're little more than squishy meat sacks, but at least previous generations would have thrown something heavy at the snarling beast. Now I wonder if we'd even grumble as our arms are torn off by oversized feline claws.

Actually, I have to wonder about any major urban environment causing this kind of desensitization to your surroundings. Does anybody notice if a homeless person dies on the street? No, they just think they're sleeping and walk right on by. Granted, this is more extreme, but the idea is the same. It's background noise. You're not paying attention to it, so you've tuned it out.

Nine hours is a lot, but there's many things contributing to the "not noticing":- Were the computers isolated? That is, one can only see someone by actively looking at the person.- How was the body positioned? The description the article gives makes it look like the body was in a believable position.- Did anyone care about this person?

Maybe people did look at the dead body, but all they saw was a person sitting in front of a computer using it. And nobody cares about a random stranger to check if he's actually playing...

While most would use this opportunity to warn gamers against the dangers of remaining stationary for extended periods of time, I think the real crux of this issue is that dozens of people failed to notice a deceased person in their midst for hours. Yeah, I get that clicking on your dudes is important, but man, where's the spatial awareness people? Would any of these gamers have batted an eye if a fire broke out? Would they have moved aside if a car crashed through the wall?

Well, those things tend to be slightly more noticeable than a man sitting at a desk.

(Skims previous replies, notices several belittling lack of empathy from Asians)Balls to that. What do I care what's happening to other people in an internet café? These people aren't me, and unless I'm scamming them and they intend to have at me with a potentially-fatal instrument, why should I pay them the slightest heed?

Well it depends, in asia the computer labs are partitioned and many computer players sleep in the chair. So if he was face down on a key board in a partition no one would really care. Also if they were al wearing headphones and focused who knows.

but to be honest, its always sad when someone dies. But those "internet cafes" tend to have rather isolated littele cubibiles and sleeping there (breaking down after a night of gaming) isn't something out of the ordinary.

But man, in every "sport" or activity people die, this was just a coincidence is my guess.

What I find hypocritical is that the article pays very little attention to the deceased, but bemoans the fact that other people paid no attention to the deceased.

That's sad for his family and friends. Hopefully for those who need closure, an answer can be found. I'd imagine that at least the act of dying was relatively painless since he didn't cry out or spasm.

To the meat of the article: is the moral, then, that I should poke anyone taking a nap in a cafe? Just to be sure?

Also, this was an internet cafe, where everyone is predominantly motionless aside from their fingers. They attributed low movement as a contributing factor to cause of death, didn't they?

A smell wouldn't develop until after about 24 hours, unless it was particularly hot or humid; but the article says the cold may have been a factor in his death.

and this surprises you? from a country where a baby gets hit multiple times by passing cars at plain day and nobody wanted to stop cause they would be held responsible for funeral charges, this is nothing

It's nonexistant. And it is not just a gaming thing, it's a general thing of beeing in public.

I was once attacked by three dudes on an open area full of people during daytime. No one cared (good for me that I know enough martial arts to defend myself properly). There are videos of a old man who collaps in the middle of a street. No one cares. People are afraid to get in trouble if they start paying attention to their surroundings.